OpenAI wants AI to do more of the clicking
Getting an AI answer is one thing. Moving the information into a form or a spreadsheet can still leave you doing the boring part yourself. OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra on Monday to handle more of that computer work, including reading invoices and entering their details into accounting software.
Terra is a new AI model available in ChatGPT Work and Codex for Plus, Pro, Enterprise and Edu users. OpenAI says it can interpret drawings, edit videos and fill out forms, and that your existing usage allowance covers more tasks than it did with the previous Terra model.
For developers building with it, the standard prices are half those of GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-6.1 Sol. That makes a difference when you’re paying an AI system to process thousands of documents rather than answer one question.
Those are OpenAI’s claims, not results from our own testing. The company reports fewer factual errors on its tests, but errors haven’t disappeared. If you try it, start with a task where you can check the finished work, such as copying details from a sample invoice. Check the numbers before trusting it with the next batch.
An excavator with nobody in the cab
Before a building can go up, someone has to move a lot of dirt. Contractors working with Bedrock Robotics say finding enough experienced operators is a problem. The company is trying to help with excavators that dig and load trucks without a person sitting inside.
On Monday, investor Bessemer Venture Partners announced it had joined Bedrock’s $600 million funding round to expand the use of its autonomous equipment. Bedrock adds its system to existing machines, so contractors don’t have to replace their whole fleet to try it.
Bessemer’s team says it watched two excavators loading human-driven dump trucks in Austin earlier this fall. One even honked when it finished loading. According to the investor, the system learned that behavior from training on human operators’ work rather than someone specifically programming the honk.
It’s an investor’s account, so it isn’t an independent safety test. And an empty excavator cab doesn’t mean an empty construction site: in that demonstration, people were still driving the trucks.
A new way to show kids how AI actually works
A chatbot can give a child an answer without showing how it got there. Google’s new Polar Peaks game takes a different approach: kids work through the data and testing that an AI project needs.
Released Monday by Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, the game is aimed at ages 11 to 14. Players help investigate a character’s memory loss by scanning and mapping neurons, with in-game mentors guiding them. Along the way, they clean up data and test models, learning why a person still needs to check the results.
This is a learning game inspired by brain research, not a tool for diagnosing memory problems. If you’re a parent or teacher looking for something beyond another chatbot conversation, it’s a concrete activity to explore together. Google has also released teacher training for the first two AI Quests; the module for this new one is due next month.
Scott